By RICH CALDER
Last updated: 8:09 am
June 27, 2008
Posted: 4:27 am
June 27, 2008
Controversial plans to expand the Brooklyn House of Detention would waste more than $180 million of taxpayers' money, a city official said yesterday.
Reopening the shuttered lockup and doubling capacity to nearly 1,500 beds would cost $440 million - or $297,500 a bed - according to figures Councilman David Yassky (D-Brooklyn) got from the Independent Budget Office.
But moving the expansion plan to Rikers Island would cost only $177,000 a bed, he told The Post.
Yassky said the city could also make more than $100 million by selling the Brooklyn site to a private developer. Correction Department spokesman Stephen Morello said he couldn't comment on Yassky's figures because he didn't know how they were calculated.
"The issue is where the jail should be located for the most efficient and safest operation of the criminal justice system and the security of the people in our system," he said.
